Flaming-hot Bunsen Burners

Bunsen burners are gas burners often used in scientific laboratories. They consist of a hollow tube that is vertically fitted around the flame. It has an opening at the base which allows for air to pass through.

A non-luminous but smokeless flame with a high temperature is produced by Bunsen burners. Bunsen burners work in the same principle as common gas stoves and lamps. These hot laboratory equipments are used for heating, combustion and sterilization.

Commonly believed to be invented by the German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, it was actually his laboratory assistant, Peter Desaga who invented the first Bunsen burner. It was based on an earlier design made by Michael Faraday and was named after Bunsen, who popularized its use.

Bunsen burners commonly have air valves that regulate the mixture of gas and air. It uses flammable gases such as natural gas (usually methane); or liquefied petroleum gas such as butane and propane; or a mixture of the two. In the past, Bunsen burners mostly used burnt coal gas.

A weighted base with a gas line connector, called the hose barb, and a vertical tube, called the barrel, are the main parts of a Bunsen burner. This hose barb is usually connected to gas nozzles with rubber tubing on the laboratory bench. Lab benches are equipped with more than one gas nozzle connected to a central gas source that provides for all the attached burning and heating devices.

The gas flows up from these gas nozzles through the base that has a small hole at the bottom of the barrel. Small, open slots at the side of the tube are so placed to admit air into the heat stream, achieving the Venturi effect. The gas then burns on the top of the tube once it gets ignited by a spark, most commonly from using a match or a spark lighter.